maum0raart over on twitter did a lovely commission of my girl Ithilrin Starfall, I'm beyond delighted!
"pirates" in Star Citizen: make it so average traders and pve players distrust everyone else for fear of being blown up, shot and looted
"pirates" in Star Citizen when traders start blowing up ships waiting at outposts first and asking questions later:
Y'know, there's this gripe I've had for years that really frustrates me, and it has to do with Love, Simon and people joking about it and calling it too-pg and designed-for-straight-people and all the like. (A similar thing has happened to Heartstopper, but that's another conversation.)
I saw Love, Simon in theaters when it came out my senior year in high school. I saw it three times, once with my friends/parents on opening night, once with my brother over spring break, and once with my grandparents.
On opening night, the air in the room was electric. It was palpable. Half the heads in there were dyed various colors. Queer kids were holding hands. We were all crying and laughing and cheering as a group. My friends grabbed my hands at the part where Simon was outed and didn't let go until his parents were saying that they accepted him. My friend came out to me as non-binary. Another person in our group admitted that she had feelings for girls. It was incredible. I left shaking. This was the first mainstream queer romance movie that had ever been produced by one of the main five studios, and I know that sounds like another "first queer character from Disney" bit but you have to understand that even in 2018 this was groundbreaking. Getting to have a sweet queer rom-com where the main character was told that he got "to breathe now" after coming out meant so much to me and my friends.
But also, from a designed-for-straight-people POV (which, to be frank, it was written by a bisexual author and directed by a gay man, this was not designed for straight audiences), why is it a bad thing that it appealed to the widest possible audience? That it could make my parents and grandparents see things in a new light? My stepdad wasn't at all interested in rom-coms but he saw it with me because it was something I cared about and he hugged me when we came out of the theater. My very Catholic grandparents watched it with me and though my grandpa said he still didn't quite understand the whole 'gay thing,' all he wanted was for me to be happy and to have a happy ending like Simon did. My Nana actually cried when Simon came out and squeeze my hand when his mother told him he could breathe.
And when Martin blackmailed Simon, my mom, badass ally that she is, literally hissed "Dropkick him. Dropkick him in the balls" leading to multiple queer kids in the audience to laugh or smile. Having my parents there- the only parents, by the way, out of my group of queer and questioning friends- made multiple people realize that supportive adults were out there. That parents like those in Love, Simon do exist in real life.
When people complain about Heartstopper not being realistic or Love, Simon being too cutesy, I remember seeing Love, Simon on opening night. I remember my friend coming out and my stepdad hugging me and my mom defending us through this character. I remember the cheers that went through the audience when Bram and Simon kissed and the chatter in the foyer after the movie was over and the way that this movie made me understand that happy endings do exist.
Queer kids need happy endings. Straight people need entry points to becoming allies. Both of these things can come together in beautiful ways. They can find out about more queer culture later, but for now, let them have this. Let them all have a glimpse at a better, happier world. Let them have queer joy.
I think a surprising amount of writers donโt realize that tragedies are supposed to be cathartic. Theyโre intended to result in a purging of emotion, a luxurious cry; the sorrow caused by a great tragedy is akin to fear caused by a good horror movie โ itโs aย โsafeโ sorrow, one that is actually satisfying to the audience. It can still be beautiful! Itโs isnโt supposed to just be salting the earth so nothing can grow.
But thatโs how you get grimdark: writers who donโt realize that theyโre supposed to be doing something with the audience instead of to the audience.
This might be unpopular but Iโm not going to use simpler vocabulary in my writing if itโs out of character for the narrator. If my POV character is a botanist, heโs going to call a plant by its name. If you donโt know what it is you can either Google it or move on just knowing itโs a plant of some sort.
I donโt like this trend of readers being angry that not everything is 100% understandable for them. I want my characters to be believable as people and sometimes people use words people outside of their field will not understand. Thatโs not a bad thing.
You donโt have to understand every word to get the gist of whatโs happening. Iโm not going to slow down an action scene to describe every weapon because someone might not know them by name. They can just assume itโs a weapon because that makes sense in the context of the scene.
I just had a debate with myself over using the word mezzanine, wondering if I should describe it instead. Ultimately I decided the character would call it a mezzanine, and therefore readers could look up a new word if they didn't know.
It's how I learned words like myriad as a seven year old reading Lord of the Rings for the first time, why would I steal that experiance from someone else by simplifying language?
I don't know about y'all, but books are how i know my vocabulary in the first place
my favorite thing relevant to this is when a dumb character uses regional or obscure words completely casually, but i have to look them up. To me it's a big weird word, but to the silly town drunk in a story what else are you supposed to call that thing??
anyway, read outside your culture as well, even if it's just the state/city/country next door that you've never been to. you will expand your vocabulary substantially.
The Crow Beneath the Ancient Arch
Hey I should probably actually post here more, huh??
No, I don't have a favorite ship dynamic. Why do you ask?
I understand the "I will die for you" ship dynamic, but what about the "I will not let you die, I will not let myself die- we will, at any cost, survive" kind of couple?
Change a single letter and change the word game
I want to play a game with you all.
You have to make a new word by changing only one letter of the last word.
Dirt
Dart
Dark
bark
Lark
Lure
Sure
Surf
Serf
Self
Seld
Meld
Mold
Mole
Hole
Bole
Bolt
Boat
Boar
Soar
Soap
Soup
Soul
Sour
Soul
Foul
Fowl
Bowl
Bawl
Jail
Hail
Hair
Heir
Hear
Heat
Head
Lead
Mead
Meat
Adhd will have you too burnt out to eat or shower but give you the hubris to decide you can homebrew an entire d&d system on the back of a receipt
frame redraw for no reason
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Padawans